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New President, other backstage changes at TNA Wrestling

By
Colin Vassallo
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TNA logo

There were some changes behind-the-scenes at TNA Wrestling, spearheaded by the arrival of new TNA Wrestling President Carlos Silva.

Silva has replaced Anthony Cicione, who assumed the role in February of last year after Scott D’Amore was fired from the company.

PWInsider.com also adds that John E. Bravo and Ingrid Isley have both been added to the Talent Relations department working under Gail Kim.

Bravo and Isley have worked with TNA for a while, with Bravo being well-liked backstage while taking on different roles while Isley was the floor manager at events.

WrestleMania 41 Real American Suite experience with Hulk Hogan on sale

By
Colin Vassallo
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OnLocation is offering the Real American Suite as a WrestleMania experience with Hulk Hogan.

The Real American Suite includes both nights of WrestleMania from the comfort of a reserved seat in a premium luxury suite at Allegiant Stadium, all-inclusive food and beverages as part of the suite, meet and greet with Hulk Hogan along with an authentic Hulk Hogan championship belt photo op, an exclusive Hulk Hogan themed souvenir, a Topgolf Event with The Miz, Priority Pass WWE World and Superstore access, and dedicated Entrance at Allegiant Stadium.

The price is a cool $9,500 per person for both nights and with the On Location FlexPay Payment Plan, you can book with a low deposit and choose your preferred frequency of payments towards the total package price.

For more information go to https://onlocationexp.com/r/wwe-live/wrestlemania-25-hulk-hogan-suite-by-the-seat-pkg-29871.

AEW/ROH Global Wars to be taped in Brisbane as part of Grand Slam

By
Colin Vassallo
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Ring of Honor will be taping AEW/ROH Global Wars this weekend in Brisbane, Australia as part of the Grand Slam television broadcast on Saturday.

Four matches are being taped for this future broadcast with Chris Jericho, Big Bill, and Bryan Keith vs Bandido and The Outrunners in a six-man tag match, ROH Pure champion Lee Moriarty vs Robbie Eagles, ROH Tag Team champions Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara vs MxM Collection, and ROH Women’s champion Athena vs Alex Windsor.

No date was announced as to when and where this will air but the ROH HonorClub streaming service seems to be the most logical place since that’s where all ROH programming airs.

Global Wars was an event held multiple times a year by ROH from 2012 until 2019. It was originally named Border Wars but underwent the name change two years after its inception when ROH and NJPW announced a partnership.

Triple H, Stephanie, and Shane McMahon at Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, his wife Stephanie McMahon, and her brother Shane McMahon along with his wife Marissa, were all in attendance this morning for Linda McMahon’s Senate confirmation hearing as she works her way towards being the next Secretary of Education under the second Trump administration.

“Thank you very much, Chairman Cassidy. I would like to introduce my daughter Stephanie McMahon, her husband Paul Levesque, and my son Shane McMahon,” McMahon said at the start of her confirmation hearing as all three sat behind her.

As soon as McMahon’s hearing started, someone from the audience jumped in and caused some commotion in protest. She was eventually escorted out.

The hearing, which involves Linda answering questions from the Senate members about a variety of subjects, including obviously education, is currently ongoing at time of this writing.

It’s being streamed live at https://www.help.senate.gov/.

Josh Mathews and Christy Hemme depart TNA Wrestling

By
Colin Vassallo
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TNA logo

Longtime TNA Wrestling employees Josh Mathews and Christy Hemme have departed the company.

In a statement announcing the arrival of Carlos Silva as new TNA Wrestling President, TNA also said, “Josh Mathews and Christy Hemme are no longer with the Company. We appreciate their commitment to TNA throughout the years, and wish them well in their future endeavors.”

Mathews joined TNA in 2014 after he left WWE and served as Senior Producer and Senior Director of Digital Media. He also worked in the commentary booth for TNA until the 2021 Hard to Kill pay-per-view.

Meanwhile, Hemme leaves after she returned to the company in 2022. She originally joined TNA in 2006 and stayed there for a decade before returning to the company to work on their social media properties. She also worked as a wrestler, ring announcer, and backstage interviewer during her first stint.

Collision rating for 02/08/2025

By
Colin Vassallo
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Collision last weekend recovered from the prior week in the viewership, with the show getting 387,000 viewers, up 190,000 from the prior week’s record low. That was the best number since December 21. The show had a 0.10 rating in 18-49, up 0.06 and was #6 on the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)

Seven matches taped for tonight’s Dynamite on TBS and Max

By
Colin Vassallo
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Dynamite logo

Dynamite tonight was taped yesterday due to the AEW crew heading over to Australia for this weekend’s Grand Slam broadcast. A total of seven matches were recorded for the broadcast which airs at 8PM ET on TBS and Max.

Two title matches will headline the show, with The Death Riders defending the AEW Trios titles against The Undisputed Kingdom while AEW Tag Team champions The Hurt Syndicate defend against The Gunns.

Also taking place are Dustin Rhodes vs MJF, Adam Page vs Max Caster, Penelope Ford vs Kris Statlander, Megan Bayne vs Maya World, and another trios match with Hook, Katsuyori Shibata, and Samoa Joe vs Aaron Solo, Jon Cruz and Rosario Grillo.

Ricky Starks pulled from Saturday indie show after NXT debut

By
Colin Vassallo
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Ricky Starks has been pulled from an indie wrestling event on Saturday night following his arrival on NXT last night.

NXT has the Vengeance Day premium live event on Saturday so it’s highly likely that Starks will be in attendance for that.

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, Ricky Starks will not be in attendance on Saturday, February 15th at the Tannery Row Ale House,” Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling announced via post on social media.

Starks made his NXT debut last night, coming out just before the main event to a shocked WWE PC audience. Starks had received his release from AEW just 24 hours before.

WrestleMania week Smackdown, NXT, and RAW tickets on pre-sale now

By
Colin Vassallo
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WrestleMania 41

Tickets for the WrestleMania Week events went on pre-sale today at AXS.COM.

Combo tickets are available using the pre-sale code WWEVIP from the WWE Presale option and the cheapest available are $196.50 plus taxes and fees, which add up around another $100 to your bill. The most expensive $1,816.50 and it adds another $165 in taxes and fees.

Single tickets for all three events are available through the AXS Premium offer and require no passcode. The cheapest tickets are $128.25 each for Raw and Smackdown and $47.92 for Smackdown, with these prices also excluding taxes and fees.

The whole T-Mobile Arena will be open for seats.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, February 14 at 10AM PST.

Julius Creed joins Daniel Cormier’s team as a coach for The Ultimate Fighter

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE Superstar Julius Creed has been announced as one of the coaches helping Daniel Cormier in the new season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The former NCAA All-American wrestler joins Cormier’s six-person backroom staff which also includes Bob Cook, Rosendo Sanchez, Michael Chiesa, Tiago Beowulf, and John Wood.

The new season of The Ultimate Fighter starts on May 27 exclusively on ESPN+. Chael Sonnen will be coaching the other team.

Cora Jade added to the NXT Women’s title match at Vengeance Day

By
Colin Vassallo
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The triple threat match for the NXT Women’s title at Vengeance Day has now been turned into a fatal four-way match with the addition of Cora Jade to the mix.

Jade defeated Bayley yesterday on NXT and her win earned her a spot on the match as announced by NXT General Manager Ava. Jade and Bayley will join Roxanne Perez and NXT Women’s champion Giulia in the match.

Speaking of Perez, she did provide some assistance to Jade last night during the show, coming out to distract Bayley in Bayley’s former NXT gimmick as the hugger.

Raw views for 02/03/2025

By
Colin Vassallo
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Raw

For the first time since moving to Netflix, Raw viewership saw an uptick in views, with the post-Royal Rumble episode on February 3 having 3,100,000 global views, up from the prior week’s 2,900,000.

Netflix listed a total of 6,100,000 hours viewed, which was actually 500,000 less than the prior week.

The number was enough to put Raw #7 globally on the chart for the week and the show was in the top 10 in Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, United States, and United Kingdom.

Ricky Starks makes surprise NXT debut

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE and Ricky Starks did not waste time to get into business as just 24 hours after he was officially released, Starks showed up unannounced on NXT.

The former AEW star made his presence felt before the main event got underway and received a big pop from the WWE Performance Center crowd.

“It’s obvious you know who I am,” Starks said as the crowd chanted his name.

“If NXT is the future of professional wrestling, well guess what, you need an absolute superstar of the future,” he continued. “If this is the hottest brand, you need the hottest free agent right now baby!”

Starks warned the crowd not to let the handsome face and expensive fragrance fool them because he was there to turn the place upside down.

“And everyone’s been begging the question, when will the revolution be televised again?,” Starks said. “I’m here, ain’t I?”

He then his did usual pose among the crowd as they cheered even more for him.

What’s interesting is that nowhere online and not even last night on television he was referred to as Ricky Starks by WWE.

The Young Bucks lose the IWGP Tag Team titles after just 35 days

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Young Bucks lost their IWGP Tag Team titles to Los Ingobernables de Japon at The New Beginning in Osaka earlier today in Japan.

The match ended after Tetsuya Naito hit several Destino’s finisher on both Nicholas and Matthew, with Nicholas doing the job after one final Destino for good measure.

The Young Bucks won the vacant titles during the Wrestle Dynasty pay-per-view on January 5 in a three-way match which also involved United Empire apart from Naito and Takahashi.

Their loss means that they held the titles for just 35 days and this was their first title defense.

Dynamite to be taped tonight as crew heads Down Under for Grand Slam

By
Colin Vassallo
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AEW logo

AEW will be taping Dynamite tonight from the H-E-B Center in Austin, Texas as a big crew and staff will be heading to Brisbane, Australia to prepare for Grand Slam.

The AEW contingent is expected to head Down Under after tonight’s broadcast to give them enough time to recover after the long flight and also do some events in the community leading up to the big day on Saturday.

Tickets for Grand Slam: Australia from the Brisbane Entertainment Centre remain available via Ticketek.com.au starting from $20.

Court rules that McMahon attorney withheld documents from federal grand jury

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Associated Press is running a story where a former lawyer for Vince McMahon was found to have withheld documents from a federal grand jury as McMahon was investigated for his NDAs with two former employees.

Three judges on the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court ruling, saying the documents in question were not protected by attorney-client privilege because of an exception for crime or fraud.

In total, 208 pages were withheld illegally.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment while McMahon’s representatives said they had no immediate comment on the ruling.

McMahon has previously claimed that he is no longer under investigation although the appeals court referred to the ruling which concerns proceedings currently before a grand jury.

NXT Roadblock to be held at The Theater at MSG on March 11

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE announced that the special NXT Roadblock episode on The CW will be held at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, March 11.

This will be the second back-to-back WWE television taping from the world’s most famous arena as Monday Night Raw on March 10 will be held from Madison Square Garden proper.

While NXT held a show once at The Theater before, this is their first television taping from the location which can hold around 5,000 seats.

Roadblock tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, February 14. A pre-sale will start tomorrow morning at 10AM with the code NXTLIVE on Ticketmaster.com.

Smackdown rating for 02/07/2025

By
Colin Vassallo
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Smackdown drew 1,507,000 viewers for the post-Royal Rumble broadcast, down 71,000 viewers from the prior week. The show had a 0.48 rating in 18-49, down 0.03 from last week and was #1 on cable and all of television, beating both college basketball and NBA on FOX and ESPN respectively. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)

Ricky Starks also gone from AEW

By
Colin Vassallo
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Miro was not the only one who got his marching orders from AEW last night as after months and months of trying, Ricky Starks finally got his wish too.

Starks has been vocal about wanting out of AEW and requested his release from the company last month, a request which was originally denied.

Starks joined AEW in June 2020 and was part of the promotion up until he fell out of favor in March of last year. Starks was teaming with Big Bill when things went south for him and wrestled his last match for the company in late March 2024.

The former AEW Tag Team champion has wrestled only five times since his last time in an AEW ring and recently won the DEFY World title from Kenta.

First match for WrestleMania 41 official

By
Colin Vassallo
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The first match for WrestleMania 41 was made official last night after Royal Rumble winner Jey Uso picked Gunther as his opponent as he goes after the WWE World Heavyweight title.

Gunther, who has promised to make Jey Uso’s life a hell until WrestleMania, interrupted the popular star’s entrance last night on Raw and laid the smackdown on Uso before being escorted out by referees.

It was then when Uso informed Gunther that he will meet him at WrestleMania. Uso has not managed to beat Gunther yet, and his last title shot a week before the Royal Rumble was close, but Gunther found a way over the line.

The Austrian star has been champion since SummerSlam. At last year’s WrestleMania, Gunther lost the Intercontinental title to Sami Zayn.

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